It was a big day in lil Judah’s life.

He was about to go out to town, for his first big outing!

He had clothes put on…

…and got bundled up in his little gray bear suit.

And out he went!

The first stop was coffee…

There was lots of good coffee to choose from.

Judah and Grandma have coffee and conversation.

Judah is sleepy.

Judah doesnt like coffee…but he likes to sleep.

On the way to the grocery store, Judah is still sleeping.

Judah went to a few different stores…

At one of the stores, Judah saw a teddy bear. The teddy bear matched his bear suit!

Then Judah came home and visited his great nan.

He showed her his new bear shoes.

Judah is happy to report, that he likes town very much, let’s go back again sometime!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Blue:

White:

Black:

Red:

Silver:

Multi:

I got the brilliant idea about a week ago to list a “Wanted” add on a local website. It simply read “Wanted large suitcase with wheels.” One person responded. After getting the address, and arraigning a time to pick it up, we set off.

The only problem was trying to locate the right house. With the only description being the color of the house, and a paved driveway. And of course, the numbers of the house. When its dark, however, we found out, numbers on a house really don’t mean all that much. Nor do colors. We approached a steep driveway on our third round of “Back and forth” down the little road. “Gotta be that one” I said. Knowing that with my luck we would get the most difficult hill to get up. Thanks to the ice it took us three tries, but eventually we made it to the top. The driveway forked, and not seeing the numbers we needed, we continued on.

A house at the top looked promising. But not seeing a door, we drove around to the back. The back turned out to be a sheet of ice, and no promising leads. After getting unstuck we continued down the tiny, narrow road into another unsuspecting persons driveway. The numbers on the house indicated that the house was close. Infact, it was real close. It should be nestled right between the two houses! Not taking my “Its just GONE!” words, dad drove around back the first house again. “I will get out and ask” I wisely declared before stepping out of the van and almost loosing my footing. The ice plus wind was NOT a good combo.

Standing on the porch watching was a man. “Excuse me!” I yelled above the wind. “Is this house number **4?” “No” he replied. “This is **6” Of course it was. That’s exactly what the numbers said. “Do you know where that is?” He pointed in the direction we had just come “Should be right over there” I thanked him, and we headed off. But the house was STILL not there. A few more rounds and I decided to try one more door. “Stop here I will go ask these people” I said, wiser than the first time. Thinking that since the man had indicated in the general direction, maybe these people could give us a better idea, I stepped out, and slipped. Then ran through the front yard, soaking my feet from the snow and rain.

The door opened…

It was the same man! I was now at his front door!

“Oh. Hi!” I said, a bit too cheerfully. “I think I just saw you!” He stared a few minutes “Yea. I think you did too” he said. “Well…now that you’re here….wheres the house?” Thinking he would point directly at it, he instead admitted he had NO idea what house I was looking for. “Who are you looking for anyways?” He asked. “Suitcase!” I declared. “Well, cant help you there.” But then he started listing off neighbors, when he got to one, I recognized the name from the emails I had exchanged. “That’s IT!” I said. After just admitting I didn’t know who I was looking for. He was nice enough and told us right where the house was.

Back down the hill, around a corner, and into the right house.

*=*=*

Once the suitcase was loaded up, we headed home. Finally. 20 minutes later.

But then tragedy struck. The suitcase, which had been minding its own business in the back…tipped over. Sending Yoshi into panic mode. Frantically trying to escape from the suitcase she tried to climb up front with me. The only problem was she was trying to get in on the wrong side, squeezing between the seat and the door, lodging herself in securely. All I could see were two arms and a head. Yoshi started to whimper. I tugged. She didn’t budge. I pushed. She wouldn’t move. She was stuck. Yoshi started yelping. “SHES STUCK!” I yelled. Dad pulled over, I opened the back door to see Yoshi hanging between the seat and door. Stuck as could be.

After a few frantic moments of trying to dislodge her, I got the brilliant idea to move the seat, and she jumped in the front seat. Refusing to sit with the suitcase.

She refused to get close to it even once we got home.

01.14 / Little Duck

01.15 / Sunset Trees

01.17 / Bought Judah a vest - A thousand and one cutes!

01.18 / Yucky yuck brr!

01.19 / Sup?

01.20 / Went to a friends house, she made banana bread. Um. Yum?

I would write more, but we have about a foot of snow, and an invitation to go sledding.  WEEEE!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Also, dont forget to check out my sisters post below.  It might be about jeggings, but shes an awesome writer   Enjoy!

Her password and login for this blog.

She even told me I had permission to write a post. What inspired her to do something like that, I may never know.  But well, Chir, I won’t let you down. 

Hello World from England!  My name is Amanda, and I am the sister of Christina, also known as ‘’Chir’’ or C.J. the author of this blog.  I am married to David and our son Judah was just born on January 5^th, two weeks ago! Yay!! We live in England; David’s home country, in March I will have been here for one year.  Christina and I skype and yahoo almost every day, and email as much as possible too. (You owe me an email Chir!) One thing we love to do, is write. We’ve loved writing things since we were kids. Then when we were teenagers, we discovered computers and consequently, that typing was an even faster way to write.  Imagine that! Instead of slowly printing out a sentence, now our hands could actually keep up with our minds. (Not that our minds were ever particularly speedy in the first place, but that’s another blog post!)

Anyways, so thanks and a shout out to Chir, for giving me a chance to co-write with her again.

My first post will be on something that is of utmost importance, of course.  I promised Chir that I wouldn’t do anything too embarrassing, like post an hour by hour recount of Judah’s birth…actually I didn’t promise her this, rather I warned her that I might do it.  She promptly forbid me though, so we’ll have a different topic for today.

Jeggings.

This is something you can’t ban me from Chir!

When I was a kid, I LOVED me some leggings. Loved them.  I didn’t like jeans, they were bulky and the thick material was rough against my skin, it made me feel heavy when I wore them, like I couldn’t walk. But eventually, over time I grew to like jeans.  They didn’t feel so bad after all I decided.   Soon jeans and I became the best of friends.

Lately tho, I’ve been returning to my childhood love of all things stretchy, in particularly things like pajama bottoms and leggings. Maybe it’s the comfort of having something that fits? That’s always a good thing in my books! Or maybe I’ve just gotten lazy.  I’m not sure, but when my jeans stopped fitting me recently (last month for two of pregnancy with lil Judah!) I thought that jeggings would make a great ”healthy alternative” to the pajamas that I’d been wearing.

When it comes to clothes issues, there are few things more depressing then trying on pair after pair of jeans and finding that somehow you can get none of them to button.  So I brought it up with Chir.

”I’m thinking of going back to leggings” I said, casually one day.

Chir: ”Ummmm like you used to wear when you were eight???”

Me: ”Yeah”

Chir: *slightly concerned* ”WHY!???”

Me: *getting defensive* ”Because!! They are comfy and look like they might look good under… say, a dress or something”

Chir: ”NO. Leggings do not look good on anyone over the age of 3. Ever.”

Me: “Even under a dress??”

Chir: ”Even under a dress.” So that was it, the end of that conversation, however it’s one that’s resurfaced many times since. Every so often I’d get the urge to ‘go legging shopping online.’  I’d look at different leggings and try to talk myself out of buying them…that wouldn’t work, so I’d bring it up again with Chir, who would inform me that leggings were ugly and pointless I’d stop looking at them for awhile then eventually decide I wanted some after all, and the cycle continued.  Soon I discovered something else; that jeggings might be more my style. Christina wasn’t moved.

”Those look like those stretchy denim things you wore as a kid!” she said.

”I KNOW arent they cute?” I’d say.

The best thing about jeggings , is that they fit, no matter what!

If only most people were as forgiving.

It’s sort of a love/hate relationship we have with jeans. Love, because well, there’s nothing like an old pair of jeans that fits you so well.  And you get close to them (pardon the pun) after spending so much time together. I LOVE a good pair of jeans!  It’s just that finding a good pair that actually fits…is tricky.

The thing we hate about jeans, is shopping for them.  Christina and I have always had issues with Jean shopping.  Most of the jeans don’t fit right.  What should be a simple task turns into a complicated search and hunt, complete with math and a little bit of science thrown in too.

”26/31 27/30 26/29….all these numbers…”

“I’m a 28/29….I think? (I really have no idea!) Do you think these will fit? They’re only 2 numbers off…”

The jeans we see in the stores, all have one thing in common: they look as though they were made for a special kind of tall TALL very skinny person.

Holding a pair up against myself, the waist held somewhere between my chest and neck, and with the legs dragging on the floor, we wonder who could possibly fit in such a pair of jeans.  Maybe some kind of alien.  Or a very tall stick figure.  Maybe some celebrity, but only after they’ve been heavily photoshopped!  Priced at around $80.00, I think it’s a valid purchase only if they actually fit -and look nice too; not if I’m going to have to cut four inches of the legs.   Sadly we’ll leave the store, having not-purchased any jeans.  We will come back again though, just to see if they have any new stock in -they will have to order new sizes in someday.  Like maybe if the alien stick figures go on a huge shopping spree and buy the store out.

Till then we’ll poke around online, looking for jeans and trying to guess what size we are on the size chart things.  It’s tricky business buying jeans online too.  At least you don’t have to try them on though, till they show up in the mail that is.

Yeah.  Jeggings would make life a LOT simpler -especially the one size fits all varieties . I see the truth!

Now, to convince Christina…

Help me decide which leggings to get!  Which ones are better?

#1 ”Jeggings”

#2 ”Corduroy”

#3 ”Flare Leggings”

Or are you too part of the ”no leggings” camp?

You see, a few weeks ago this idea popped into my head “Hey” it said “Wouldn’t it be cool if Amanda wrote on your blog with you?” “YEA!” I replied…and then forgot about it. And remembered it when she was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until a few days ago did I purpose the idea, and she was all over it. Turns out – she WANTS to write with me! I couldn’t be more excited. But um, jeggins? Seriously? All jokes aside, I am seriously PUMPED to be writing with her!

And I think you should be too!

She writes far better than I could ever hope to, and inspires me to keep trying. Even though shes already reached the stars…and Im nowhere close.

I am excited to introduce to you, my sister!

We set her up with her very own log in info, and everything (that way you wont be shocked to see me writing about JEGGINGS. Ahem.) If its written by “Capnmanda” that’s her! And just as an added bonus, she has some pretty sweet ideas about things she wants to do “Around here” so keep watching. I think she mentioned something about hosting a link up, and doing contest with prizes. But I couldn’t be for sure!

Either way – Im excited to share this with her, and hope shes just as excited! YAY for sisters! YAY for co-writing!

I started to panic when I saw this:

But soon got over myself and really began to panic when I saw this:

And then finally gave up panicking when I looked and the for-cast was informing us that at 8am Tuesday morning it would feel like -14.  And let me tell you, it felt every bit of -14.  It was very hard to get out of be that morning.

I think I should also point out, the highs were NEVER met.  The lows, however, were.

Today I am wearing 5 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of wool socks.  And Im still cold.  I feel like a poofy snowman.  Or a giant marshmallow.  I guess the good news is that come Spring, I am guaranteed a 5 pound loss!!

That last image was taken Wednesday morning.  At 10.  So much for 18.

When the week started I thought “Ah I will just take some pictures of this snow storm, snows cold.”

But as the week wore on it became apparent that this was much more than a simple snow storm.

Crummy picture, but thats ice…on the INSIDE of the window:

Slim hanst been to sure what to think of the cold.  Shes more of a…heater dog.

Yoshi, on the other hand, has yet to be stopped.

Despite the below freezing cold temperatures, I still love it here in Alaska.

My friend asked me the other day if I ever saw myself living outside of Alaska…

I thought for a few seconds, about the frigid cold temperatures…

And then said no.  I dont. 

I love it here.  For now, we will continue to bundle up, pile the layers on, and stoke the fire.  Because when Summer comes…it is always worth it!

Introducing…Baby JD!  Or, you know, Judah!!!

Im not biased or anything, but I think hes the cutest nephew….EVER!

Also?  Over the course of the 20 minutes I saw him, I am almost POSITIVE he got bigger, and cuter.  If thats even possible!  Cant wait to meet him in person!!

(I guess I will stop staring at the pictures and post this now!  Your welcome.)

bright

and colorful

candy shots

from the week.

Yay!

For Candy!

Looking back over the year, I seem to touch on the highlights of things.  The highs and lows.  The in-betweens get lost, and sometimes…the in-between are the best part.  Like with a pb&j sandwich, without it, you would just have bread.  I like looking back and remembering those silly moments, the things that are long forgotten at the end of the year.  The moments that didn’t make the cut, or the Christmas news letter – THOSE are the things that I am trying hard to write this year.

Its been my motivation this week.  Taking a picture of something that caught my attention.  That in an ordinary day – was something that called my name.  The pictures arent the best (Im no pro) and they arent edited this week.  They are just how I saw them at the time.  Its just how the week has been.  A little crazy, kind of slow, with some candy tossed in to keep things sweet.

{Click for a bigger view}

01.08 / The "List"

01.06 / The "Note"

01.07 / Playing with fire

01.08 / Sleeping

01.09 / Sun vs. Clouds

01.10 / Oh PLEASE!?

01.11 / Did you see THAT!?

01.12 / Dog art